Luke Cage Season 2: What’s Next for Misty Knight

Luke Cage Season 2 has arrived on Netflix. One of the shining stars from the first season is back, as well. We last saw Detective Misty Knight in a hospital bed at the conclusion of The Defenders, and one has to wonder how she will handle the results of her heroic actions. Den of Geek spoke with actress Simone Missick to try and get some insight on how Misty adjusts to her new life.  

Den of Geek: How is Misty dealing with the loss of her right arm post-Defenders this season?

Simone Missick: We figure at the beginning of the season she’s at a loss. She’s very vulnerable, she is depressed. So much of who she is is tied into her physical abilities. She’s an athlete, she’s a cop. Her ability to be a cop is taken away from her. Or, she takes it away from herself is the better phrase.

So we see Misty dealing with that at the beginning of the season, and eventually she pulls herself out of her own funk and she stops making excuses for why she can’t. And she starts looking at the possibilities of what she can do. And I think that once she steps back into action mentally, the physically all comes into play.

How essential is Colleen when it comes to helping Misty deal with some of that internalized ableism that she’s feeling towards herself?

You know, the beautiful thing about Colleen and Misty’s friendship that we get to see, is that these are two very strong women who have been through a lot in their respective lives. And the thing that they appreciate about each other is that they don’t bullshit each other. They’re both alpha women, and neither has time to sit around and let the other cry on their shoulder. Not at this point in their relationship.

And so Colleen really presents Misty with a choice. I think that it’s her prompting her to that, it’s nothing that Misty on her own could have come up with that the people in her circle, in her family, her former coworkers could have brought her to. It’s this person on the outside who truly sees her who she respects calling her on her shit that makes her get her stuff back together.

So where does Misty see herself on a scale of Scarfe to Captain Ridenhour?

Ooh, that’s a good one. I think Misty definitely saw herself as more honest and by the book and admirable than Ridenhour. But in Season 2, there’s a little bit more gray. I would say she’s got a little more Scarfe than she’d admit.

So I got the pleasure of playing opposite my husband, Dorian Missick. He played Dontrell “Cockroach” Johnson. But there in the comics, that goes up against Luke Cage, and that man’s existence makes her question her own morality. Which, as a wife, sometimes my husband gets on my nerves and makes me question some things about my own patience. So, I think she’s got a little bit more Scarfe in her this season, but she’s still Misty. She’s in the middle.

So, to ask the really pressing question, what was the hair routine for Season 2?

The hair. So, there was a lot of discussion. We had a new hair department team led by a woman, Belinda Anderson. There was a lot of discussion about how does a woman keep her hair together one-armed? How does that happen? So in the beginning of this season, we see Misty, she’s got a wash n’ go. Because that’s all you can really do.

But again, once she starts to get herself together, once she gets her arm, we imagine that Misty has gone back to her twist-out. It’s just that she feels comfortable going in and having her girl in Harlem hook hair up, but the twist-out is definitely back by the end of Season 2.

Could you be open to a Daughters of the Dragon or a Heroes for Hire situation? Because we get a little bit of that with Misty and Luke.

Definitely! I got the pleasure of being on Iron Fist Season 2, and Colleen and I, or Jessica and I got to work together as Colleen and Misty. And, she is an amazing actor, and a wonderful person, and we have so much fun together. I can’t wait for people to see that relationship blossom on screen.

But I think that Heroes for Hire would create a lot of wonderful tension between Misty and Luke and Danny and Colleen. More of them butting heads about which way things should be done and how, all of those strong personalities, I think that would be a lot of fun. But, I continue to tell the fans, if you tweet it, it will come.

Were you doing any of your own stunts, because Misty’s doing a lot of tackling this season, and I was here for it.

It was so much fun to get into that. Our stunt writer, stunt coordinator and his team, Alfred Hsing was my stunt guy, and he just really drilled into me the choreography. But I’m going to be honest, when it comes to the tackling, I have to give that duty to my stunt double, who is also my friend, Jenel Stevens. She’s an amazing stunt double, she is also one of the Dora Milaje in Black Panther. So, she would come back from filming Avengers 4, and come, and knock me to the ground because one thing I can’t guarantee you is that I’ll get back up after that.